Correcting One Error in Non-Binary Channels with Feedback

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of correction of a single error in $q$-ary symmetric channel with noiseless feedback is considered. We propose an algorithm to construct codes with feedback inductively. For all prime power $q$ we prove that two instances of feedback are sufficient to transmit over the $q$-ary symmetric channel the same number of messages as in the case of complete feedback. Our other contribution is the construction of codes with one-time feedback with the same parameters as Hamming codes for $q$ that is not a prime power. We also construct single-error-correcting codes with one-time feedback of size $q^{n-2}$ for arbitrary $q$ and $n\le q+1$, which can be seen as an analog for Reed-Solomon codes.